[NYTr] Cuban Doctors Help Thousands of Guatemalans to Recover Sight

[All the News That Doesn't Fit]

Agencia Cubana de Noticias (ACN)
http://ainch.ain.cu/mailman/listinfo/ingles


Cuban Doctors Help Thousands of Guatemalans to Recover Sight

Havana, August 7 (acn) More than nine thousand Guatemalans have thus 
far been operated upon at the "Jose Joaquin Palma" ophthalmologic 
hospital installed by Cuba in the Central American country a year ago 
to treat low-income people suffering from eye illnesses.

During a rally held in San Cristobal Verapaz to mark the first 
anniversary of the inauguration of the hospital, Salvador Carrillo, the 
director of the health institution, said that the creation of this 
facility, the first of its type in Central America, was possible thanks 
to the free-eye surgery program Operation Miracle, promoted by Cuban 
President Fidel Castro and which has allowed hundreds of thousands of 
people to recover their sight.

According to Prensa Latina news agency, the ceremony was also dedicated 
to the upcoming 81th birthday anniversary of the leader of the Cuban 
Revolution on August 13th and to the five Cuban political prisoners in 
the United States who remain incarcerated there for fighting terrorism.

Cristina Villafan, national coordinator of Operation Miracle in 
Guatemala, recalled that another ophthalmologic center was inaugurated 
last January in the eastern Guatemalan department of Jalapa. In all, a 
total of 12,126 patients have undergone surgery in these two hospitals, 
she noted.